Story time reflections

Once upon a time, there were six young children lost in the woods. They had grown up together in a small town at the edge of the woods, but that town was a place of filth and refuse that never truly came clean. Agreeing that they had to strike out on their own to start a new life away from that town, they packed their bags and meager belongings with a few sandwiches. Slipping away with the smallest of goodbyes, they hit the road out of town and walked deep into the woods to cross and find a better life.

As they traveled, the children shared their hopes and dreams for the future and what life they wanted now free of their old town.

"I want to find a place that will let me become a warrior of renown, someone that people will sing my tales for years to come." Thus spoke the first child, and the leaves shook and heard his call.

"I want to live life as one party, traveling from one camp to the next and meeting all the new friends I can." Thus spoke the second child, and the squirrels chit tweed and heard his call.

"I want to be an artist, to bring to life the images I see in my mind, and work for what I want without being beholden to others." Thus spoke the third child, and the bubbling spring flowed fast and heard her call.

"I want to fight the good fight, to work hard for my gain and end the day with a new meal every night. I want purpose." Thus spoke the fourth child, and the wind picked up and heard his call.

"I want a place to call home, to make my way free and have a family." Thus spoke the fifth child, and the birds took to the air and heard her call.

"I want to create something lasting, to help support a great work or some building to have that satisfaction." Thus spoke the sixth child, and the flowers slowly opened in the sunlight and heard his call.

After a time, the children crossed the wood and entered a new kingdom. There they met wonderful people, new friends who took them into their homes and let them sleep a spell in exchange for a few chores around town. There they met the new King and Queen, freshly crowned and ready to make new friends as well. The children decided that this was a place they could call home, and began to settle. They met new friends, new faces, and the influence these good folk had on them helped shaped their growth. As they started their lives, those dreams they shared in the wood began to come true in ways they never could have imagined.

The first child picked up the blade, and though skilled as he was it was his way with the pen that quickly won him renown. His tongue and quill became sharper than any blade he could wield, and there were stories told of his prowess in battle true...but these tales of valor and honor came from his wordsmith skill and the lightness of soul it takes to master speechcraft. Thus, when that first King and Queen came back round to rule the land again the child found his dream had come true. 

The second child did indeed spend his time traveling from camp to camp, traveling to meet new friends and celebrate life. As he traveled, he learned new tales and shared them as he went. He found a love for the bardic arts, studying multiple musical arts and sharing his joy of life to every tent and cabin he found himself. Thus, when that first King and Queen came back round to rule the land again the child found his dream had come true. 

The third child quickly became an artist of renown, earning the respect of the various guilds and rank within. She found joy in creating art for the sake of art, but her heart truly soared when she did art for the sake of another. She dedicated herself to art for the sake of others, raising others up. In the joy of others she found life, and bent to task. Thus, when that first King and Queen came back round to rule the land again the child found her dream had come true. 

The fourth child did find his fight, and his skills with the blade became well known. But his skill became known not for combat, but the kitchen. He worked hard, he ate well and he learned to value his work for others. Dedicating himself to art and work for others, he found purpose. Thus, when that first King and Queen came back round to rule the land again the child found his dream had come true. 

The fifth child found the family she sought, a good man to wed and a doting child to have at her knee. Her family would not simply be them, she would soon discover a whole family who flirting about as the butterfly to take her under their wings. She found a home working the sewing rooms and scribal halls, and was happy. Thus, when that first King and Queen came back round to rule the land again the child found her dream had come true. 

The sixth child found great success with his ability to see what needed to be built, and to create works that others needed. He rebuilt and redesigned a whole tavern and town postal service, he inovated a new method to share festivals held throughout the land and found happiness. All this was good, but still his soul did not know satisfaction. It wasn't until he had wed and held the son he helped bring into the world that he truly knew joy, and the greatest thing he would leave behind as a legacy. Thus, when that first King and Queen came back round to rule the land again the child found his dream had come true. 

In the end, all the children found that their dreams had come true in one fashion or another, and all rested well and in happiness. They toasted the King and Queen, the first ever they remembered having, vowed to continue to support the magical kingdom they had found which made dreams come true.

And they lived happily ever after.

Sunday Topic: Religion and Spirituality

Religion -

1) the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

2) a particular system of faith and worship

Spiritual -

1) of, relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

2) of or relating to religion or religious belief

See? There is a difference!

I've always seen a difference between the two, and understood my need for them in separate manners. Religion is the structure in which I express my spirituality through the lens of culture/time/current ethics or morals. Spirituality is the core truth, the message and the importance it has on me. Spirituality is the code/the message, Religion is the way the message is presented and the ritual I use to express it.

Religion shifts and changes with the culture and time that uses it. Christianity today is vastly different than Christianity 100 years ago, or even just 50 years ago. The message/truth/code/guidelines/expression of reality that Christianity proclaims hasn't changed; what has changed is how we interpret it and how we express it. Christianity in America is different than Christianity in Germany, same day but different culture. At the heart, both cultures draw upon the same information and resources but due to the lens of society interprets it vastly different.

Spirituality however, that is something I feel a bit more fundamental. It is the thing we understand in our hearts as right, it is the moral/ethical code we follow to be a better person. It is those beliefs we have that defy explanation or assumption, it is the way of living that feels right. These are fundamental cores of our nature, the things that are "real" to each of us. These have to be expressed, they defy our understanding in an animistic way, and thus we create filters to understand them. These filters are built out of our cultural heritage and thus the message will change...into Religion.

Can you have pure spirituality and no religion? I think some people do, but they are rare. Isolated monks, spiritual guru's hidden in the wilds, these are people who have no tie to culture or the times and express their spirituality through an unfiltered/less tainted lens. But for the rest of us, our spiritual needs become expressed through the religion we choose to follow. I think it's a good thing to understand that.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

Artist Life

Artist Life is...

. Being unable to eat, sleep or even control your breathing due to the INTENSITY that you feel you must create art.

. Being nervous about spending $0.99 on an app that will provide a few hours of entertainment, but you cannot pull out your credit card fast enough for a multi-book binding of three 14th Century cooking manuscripts for $100.00.

. Having to pause moments of your day to jot down notes or ideas, as brief bouts of inspiration hit due to random circumstance.

. Meeting a fellow artist, and spending hours just enjoying the shop talk and sharing of knowledge with a new friend. But when someone asks you later who you were talking to...not remembering their name because you realize you forgot to ask it,

. Hating the things that people praise the most, because you feel the praise is unjustified.

. A whole host of superstitions from years of work that infect your every move when creating art. Examples being specific chairs you must sit in to write, temperature/humidity to compose music to, just the right amount of clothing in the right spots to feel inspired to write.

. Seeing the world in a completely alien way than most of the population...and the learning to cope with that separation. 

. Flying into a rage because you could not properly explain to your loved ones the vision you have, the artistic mindset you wish to impart.

. Weeping at the chance to spend weeks of your life slaving away on a project that will perhaps only be experienced by people once, to be put on display for a majority who will never know the pints of blood poured into the task. 

For me, the biggest thing is seeing the world differently. And it's not so much a physical change in what I see...I see the boats on the water just like everyone else. It's just so much more than that.

I see the boats on the water, water stained gold and red with the light of a dying day. The water surges up the side of each ship, bleeding the promise and dreams of deeds done that day before becoming swallowed by the black night and the promise of death. Each ship drifts along, sailing despite the dying day, continuing its journey despite setbacks because it is confidant that with death must follow a new life and a new day. Some boats are pure of heart, some shadowed in an inner darkness reflected out, some striving for that purely human element of the middle which we must all arrive in. Some sails are unfurled to learn what it can of the knowledge of wind, some lowered to trust their own steering of the rudder. Always sailing, forever along the ocean of life and death. 

This is Artist Life.

Improving the game? Or snobbery?

One of the things I've been struggling with the last few weeks is that balance between wanting to improve my personal/local "game" and not wanting to be a snobbish asshole who demands elitism. Much of the argument is internal to be fair, but when it starts to affect my outside worldview I worry about crossing the line.

I've been on a personal kick to improve my game for the past few weeks. So much of my fun has been in losing myself in another time/place, but as I've played longer in the SCA it's become tricky. A lot of these limitations are mine, where I focused so much on food I did not develop as well in other areas and those moments began to remove me from the fun. I grew self-conscious of my patched together miss-matched outfits, I was embarrassed at my lazy attempts at heraldry, I couldn't find my personas way out of a paper bag with hazily touched upon studies. I realized this was something that was troubling me, and I have finally started taking the steps I needed to up my game.

Come Fall Coronation I should have a total of 6 new outfits for every occasion, and flags of heraldry to represent myself and my home proudly. I'm converting my personal kits to have a more period look, putting my spices into jars and looking into transporting my gear for all seasons in period style containers. I'm really excited to bring myself to a better personal game, and that in turn has inspired me to share more of what I love and help others raise their games as well.  But in expanding my view, I've noticed myself feeling almost...snobbish or frustrated with others who don't seem to want to even try. And I try not to let it affect me too much, but still...

A conversation in regards to feasts brought this up again today. We strive to have a period presence in everything we do, but with food it always seem to be a struggle. Why? I just don't understand it, and I get frustrated when I see menus which are not even pretending to look period, or hear people telling me I shouldn't care so much about it. I do care, and I get frustrated that so many others don't. But on the other hand, I haven't gotten a bunch of crap for how I've looked or camped if it wasn't up to par with the others around me.

I'm just stuck in a loss as I puzzle this, how to address it. I now the first step is to improve my own game, but how to I enhance and improve the game around me? How do I help others make those next steps, even in thins they perhaps dot see a need to do? 

Am I working to improve the game, or am I just a snob?

Facing the mirror

St. Val's feast had me facing something terrifying. I was uncomfortable the whole time, anxious and nervous. I think this feast was the hardest thing I've done so far, because I had to face my greatest challenges in it. I had to face myself during this, I had to face my own failings and mistakes. I had to realize my own limitations, further more I had to realize when I was sabotaging myself. This feast helped me realize all that.

Long time ago, I was that gifted kid in class. I was the one who was ahead of every lesson, I could pick up and sight read music for nearly any instrument, I was reading at a college level by 5th grade and I was always on top. I didn't have to try, I didn't have to really work to be successful. Not until 7th grade, I ran into my first challenge then when I was put into the 8th grade advanced math course. Suddenly I had to try, I was just...average. I failed.

I couldn't handle it, the failing. I began to think that maybe I wasn't smart, that I couldn't do all these things. That I was just this fraud...that my life to that point was wrong and a lie. So I stopped trying. I started holding back, I chose to take no action and let things just happen. I began to rationalize that if I didn't actually try then I would never really know how well I could actually do or know how badly I could fail. I took the easiest route, I avoided challenges and just let myself fail through inaction rather than make an effort.

I did this for so long, that it just became my MO. I took the easy roads, I let the chips fall where they may instead of trying and I just let life rule me. I made so many poor choices through inaction, that I began to believe my own bullshit. Even when I joined up with the SCA the second time, what I did while fun was no real challenge to me. I could just...do it without trying. So I did things for fun, and nothing was amiss. Then I hit Fall Coronation 2015.

I devoted a year of my life to that feast. I studied Japanese culture, I read their mythology and history from pre-history to Edo. I learned about their poems and their songs, their wars and heroes. All of this so I could understand a new cooking style, to understand a culture that was incredibly foreign to everything I've known. I got to the feast after a year of work...and I did a good job. I made plenty of mistakes, the list if I were to get into it would be huge if I were to be frank, but it was still a damned good feast. It wasn't my best, but for the first time in a long time I really tried and while I didn't quite reach that top gold rung I got a good silver pedestal. But everyone else...I couldn't escape the praise. I couldn't escape the constant well wishes and the regular compliments, and the more praise was heaped at me the more I began to resent the feast. I hadn't been the best, I had just passed, why was everyone making a huge deal about my failures?

I started another downward spiral. I started to rethink every success I had over the last five years and began to tell myself that even my easy successes had just been failures that people didn't realize. As I began to work on my next feast for St. Val's, I couldn't focus. Even working with a fantastic partner, I did not put anywhere near the effort I normally did into it. I expected to fail, I expected that it would be ruined and thus I put almost zero effort or work towards it. I just couldn't muster the energy to care.

Then I was suddenly forced to care. St. Val's was to host Art/Sci, and I had to look at the 3/4 completed project I had left in rambles and face the fact that it was me who ensured it couldn't be entered. I had to fave the fact that the feast was going to be hurt because I didn't support my comrade, and my friends were gonna have a bad night because I was selfish and didn't want to admit that I lacked such confidence in myself. My friends know I have such little ego, so when I looked into the mirror that day the next thought that came was akin to a slap in the face.

I looked into the mirror, and realized I had been holding back for years because I was too afraid to really try. I had never really tried at anything for years until fall coronation, and I was willing to throw that all away. 

I was a flurry of work from that point on. I pushed myself to recover for lost time, I improvised recipes on instinct and potions/flavor profiles on just a fundamental understanding. Hell, I recreated a recipe I had eaten 2 years ago based on memory of taste/texture and a few tips on assorted chickpea recipes I found online. I gave it a real effort that last little bit of time, to just be good again. I made a huge number of mistakes, but I had a great team member supporting me and a great crew to work with all day. I faced my fear of failure instead of hiding, I gave it a real try for my friends sake. 

We did a real good feast, hot food was hot and cold food was cold. Everyone liked the taste, and everyone had plenty to eat. I had a great co-Feastcrat who worked with me to make a great experience. I had a great hall steward who did a fantastic job of organizing the hall and servers. I had great friends who supported me and helped me get through it. I got a chance to look in the mirror and realize that if I actually tried...if I put real effort into my passion without fear of failure...that maybe I could have my best feast yet.

I feel good. I got hurt, I got knocked down. But for the first time I realize that it's my fault for the pain, and now I can stand back up and keep moving forward.

An Crosaire has always been a place of beginnings, of renewals for me. Seems like it did it again.

Video Games: A Year in Review

I love video games, I wish I had more time to just sit back and enjoy them but my life often takes me away. 2015 has been a great year for gaming for me, and I would just like to talk about some of my experiences this year in gaming. These are not everything I've played this year, just some of my favorites.



Fallout 4 - I have sunk WAY too many hours into this game already, and it just came out in December. I love everything to do with this game, I've made 4 distinct characters already to explore different character builds and ways to explore the game. Another Bethesda classic, the open world style of game play for me never gets old and continues to shine. There have been some great improvements in the game from Fallout 3 (love the physics, improved combat mechanics and cool gun customization's), but also some negative changes I'm none to pleased with (dialog system anyone?). I think the hidden gem of this game is the surprise settlement building mechanics, it's a great start and I hope that the DLC coming soon will expand and improve on the basic system in place.

I rate Fallout at 4 power armor suits  out of 5.


Bloodborne - Dark Souls/Demon Souls never really appealed to me as a gamer, the mechanics are unforgiving most of the time and not conductive to my style of enjoyment. When I heard of Bloodborne I was like "Oh great, another hard ass game I have to be told I should enjoy if I'm a real gamer". It was this review here that changed my mind on the game, I am a sucker for a good story and I love Victorian Horror and Lovecraft Horror styles. Yes the game is grueling and yes the game is very unforgiving at times...but the lore and story of this game have me hooked. If you love good horror, and don't mind some crazy difficult game play, I cannot recommend this game enough.

I rate Bloodborne at 3 gibbering madmen ranting about the Old Ones out of Gralphfil'agi



Destiny: Taken King Edition - I purchased a PS4 just to get Destiny when it first came out in 2014, and I was super disappointed. I'm not the biggest shooter fan, but the story alone attracted me to this gem and I had followed its development for years. The finished product left me underwhelmed at best, and I traded it away and moved onto other games. When the Taken King edition came out (with the original game + all the expansions and DLC to date), my wife purchased it for me because she remembered how much I wanted the game in the past. I have to say...all the changes have been good. The DLC and expansions fill out the game, re-balancing has been nice. The game controls better, and I do have a more enjoyable time with it overall. The story still feels lacking, and I'm still frustrated with the whole Bungee website thing, but as far as a shooter goes it's the most fun I've had this year.

I rate Destiny at  2.5 ammo clips out of 4 randomly generated wooden crates somewhere on the f^&king map.


Until Dawn - Dude, this game rocks. It's a video game that plays like a classic 80's/90's horror film, the butterfly effect/choice system is cool and its some of the tightest acting/writing I've seen in a game to date. There isn't much to the mechanics sadly, it's a very story heavy game so many action-style gamer's may find it boring. But it's the perfect game to play when you have a bunch of friends over and wanna feel involved in the telling of a great horror story.

I rate Until Dawn 4 jump scares out of AHHHHH!


Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - 7/10, too much water. Sorry, I couldn't resist the joke! This is a remake of the Gen 3 Pokemon classic, and its a fantastic upgrade. New look, new Pokemon, new styles, it's just great. If you've ever played Pokemon you know what you're getting, but that hasn't stopped me from putting in hundreds of hours into the game. If you like Pokemon, you should play this.

I rate Pokemon AS at 675 Pokedex entries out of 712.

Why Thanksgiving is not real

This post is gonna be a bit ramble here, excuse it please. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the basic ideas I put together in my head.

I decided to spend the day in silence, enjoying the company of my own mind and thoughts. These days are rare, and I enjoy them whenever I can. While I was taking a nice drive, on the radio I heard a Christmas jingle begin to play. I began with my usual grumbling response of "why can't Christmas stay in its own season" and then I paused, because Thanksgiving really doesn't have a "season". Thanksgiving has nothing big, it's an artificial day we created just like Christmas or Easter. Why do I suddenly care if it gets overshadowed?

An hours worth of rushing thoughts and whirling memories (and math) later, I was shocked with the only observable answer I could find: Thanksgiving wasn't real.

To give you some context...another life ago I played a game as a character obsessed with all things Christmas and the Christmas season. To better play as this character, I began to study Christmas and winter traditions all around the world and through time. One thing that I discovered that made me uncomfortable was the uniform way we celebrated these winter holidays. 

All around the world, humanity as a shared species has decided that there needed to be a winter ritual, to inspire the mind and bring the community together. This ritual was based around local spiritual beliefs, but always had the same purpose and context. No matter the time, the culture or even the date; humanity had a shared "winter" ritual/holiday that was incredibly vital and important to us. As I studied this one holiday, to better understand the cycle of progress I discovered that we had done very much the same for a Fall/Summer/Spring holiday as well. It was if at those times we decided this was important, and it shaped our cultures. 

But we still needed to define ourselves individually as well. (Again) In almost every culture I studied there was an additional 4 other holidays around the year that were important, but these were important in idea but not in ritual. For example it was always important to our ancestors that we honor and celebrate our dead and remember them, but how that is done differs not just culture to culture but even town to town. So this happens through all our lives, we seek out and celebrate these events.

What does this have to do with Thanksgiving I'm sure you're asking. Well funnily enough in the Gregorian calendar system that was designed for Western calendars, no ritualistic holidays fall in November. No holiday or ritual of importance to Western culture falls in November.

That's weird right? Especially because the holidays/rituals seem to fall in a pretty set pattern. That's where things start to go deep.

The human mind seeks patterns, it seeks ritual and understanding like no animal alive on Earth. We created these rituals and holidays because we needed them, and not just the celebration but the regularity. These celebrations have anchors to our lives, marked the year. The lunar calendar was always unreliable, because of the fewer day count than the solar year it meant that months would slip seasons. What was a winter month was now a summer after a few years, so the holidays themselves acted as more of a calendar marking system than the written in many early cultures. The spring festival was always around the same time every year, as was the rest. The summer was always roughly the same distance apart from the fall and spring, which meant the holidays all fell together in a nice pattern. We, that is to say humans, like patterns because they make sense. So we were happy with that for a VERY long time.

Fast forward this to the start of modern American culture. In the 1800's as the world was changing due to the industrial revolution, humanity was changing with it. Our patterns changed, our behaviors and every way of life was affected by this change. But we still needed these rituals, these holidays we had created. They were a part of who we were as inheritors of Western culture, and had to find some way of expressing them. I believe we did adapt and change them, and that is the problem.

All around the world we have four major holidays: a spring, a summer, a fall and a winter. Americans have adjusted and changed their lives by moving to a more mild climate than what they left in Europe, and so our major holidays have changed as well. The easiest to point out is Christmas, it's firmly placed in the calendar and its morphing from a religious holiday to a secular one is more evident as the years go on. The Spring holiday is also undergoing a shift, that I feel is more due to again the drifting of Christian dominance in politics/holidays in the country. Valentine's Day is our major American spring holiday, not only does it encompass the beginnings of new love and new life but as the years have gone on its taken a larger consumer focus and begun to incorporate some other spring features like cute baby animals (representing new livestock) and flowers (representing new/blooming life). Easter still has a strong grip, but each year I see it losing more and more generalization and becoming more and more rigidly Christian (which is totally fine!)

Summer was, for a long time in old Europe, given the holiday of Beltane to celebrate...here in America we have Memorial Day. It is the "unofficial" start of the summer, it is celebrated with large group gatherings involving fire/food/drink, stories and deeds of past gathered are told and memorialized to learn from them and be like them. Students are let out to work the fields, trips are planned and happen (hello former season of war) all across the nation. Memorial Day is rooted in the ritual itch that Beltane scratched, which is why that weekend has so many important holiday traditions surrounding it. 

That brings us to Fall...which is in bad shape here in America. We have no real fall festival, hell our fall is dramatically different here than in Europe. For most of our culture we did not have a unifying fall festival, communities would throw harvest festivals in September around Michaelmas but as the industrial revolution ripped across the world that even changed how our country operated; going from an agricultural to a industrial in the relative blink of an eye. Now all the labor and work came from factories and machine halls instead of farms.

Labor Day I feel satisfies MOST of what we want for our fall festival. It honors the "harvest", brings the community and family together, welcomes back the men from their time away (returning soldiers now returning families from vacation), and shares the bounty of the harvest with everyone (hello one of the busiest sales weekends of the year). It brings that ritual component that we need to feel better.

But what about Thanksgiving? Why is that holiday, which should be our fall ritual, regulated to nothing status? Because...it's all made up.

Thanksgiving as a holiday is a fake. It does not draw from the cultural heritage of the other holidays and thus has no support to stand on. The pilgrims landed, probably happened in September by official reconciling. Harvests in America are finished by October to prepare for early winter weather that comes in November. The holiday itself wasn't official until 1942, almost 80 years after Lincoln established it (in comparison to Labor Day which has been regularly celebrated since the 1880's). The holidays point was to thank God that we were delivered from Europe and thank him for our "blessings", NOTHING to do with being focused on harvest. We don't know what to do with this holiday, so we did the only thing our subconscious brings could muster: attach all the fall ritual trappings that Labor Day was missing.

Now we have a Christian general day of thanks, parading around and pretending to be a fall featival. It has no attachment to any ritual itch humanity needs scratched, and we really only acknowledge it when forced to (or point out how it's being overshadowed by a real holiday). It's empty, devoid of the meaning that these other holidays all have for our hearts.

And that is why Thanksgiving is not real.

Feast Thank You's

Any project is composed of multiple parts, and a feast is not just the head cook; dozens of people play a vital role in making a dream become a reality. Before I delve into a full breakdown of my feast I want to take the time and thank many key people in this successful journey.

Three people deserve special mention, for all they helped me make this feast a reality. Kristin picked up a dropped ball at the literal last minute, she helped make my feast hall vision a reality and without her I would not have been such a success. If you appreciated the hall at all, please send her a note of thanks. Andi, my Laurel, of course deserves special mention for all she did for me. From counciling and advise to slapping me silly and keeping me focused, she was the rock I needed. Of course I cannot forget to thank Corey amongst these three, in the kitchen and outside of it he was my right hand in everything i did. He and I had been working towards this project for many months, and he never left my side in the kitchen. I could not have completed this meal without his skilled hand and artistic vision, he deserves much praise.

My sister Ever is a wonderful person as well, she took on the hard job of organizing servers for this and did an amazing job. Molly, Fionnula, Deniese and all the Butterflies did an amazing job helping wherever they could and however they could; I wish I knew everyone's names who I saw lending a hand so I could find them and hug them so very tight. I was overjoyed that my lovely wife Sarah made it from work to spend the day with me and experience feast, that really cheered me. And my lovely family who barreled in to clean my kitchen, Far-Flung is my family and I am proud to be one of theirs as well.

His Majesty continues to surprise me, kudos to him for that, and I was humbled to receive such an honor for my feast. I loved my crowd who all attended the High Authenticity experience, their participation and willingness to go full on board made me smile so much. The event staff who allowed me to chase this dream, those who donated items to decorate the hall and even those who stopped me to make sure I had eaten or had water: thank you so much.

For all the people who helped and I cannot name, thank you for what you did for me and my Dream.

Because I knew you...

As late as 2011, I was a terrible person.

Well, maybe terrible was a strong term. Not good is better, or even lacking in chivalrousness could be described; any way you cut it I was not a good person to be terribly close to. I cheated and stole, I gossiped and worked to "punish" those that I felt wronged me and my own, I lied and broke promises. I blamed my hurt on my past, on my present, on anything I could find to excuse my poor behavior. And all the while, I was miserable.

A whirlwind of time later, I found myself surrounded by a whole new crowd. A new girlfriend, a new social circle, new peers in my life. It was a restart, a chance to have a blank canvas...and I almost wrecked it. My fear, my cowardliness almost had me throw it all away. People were treating me with respect. Me, this monster of a person, was being treated with kindness and generosity. My best friend Ever has often stated it's because people could see the good in me that I was choosing to be blind to, and I really feel she was right. I was blind to the person inside, the honest and good soul, because I was afraid. Afraid of my past, afraid of the choices I had made, and afraid of admitting fear itself. I was running from life because I was afraid to live it. 

So many people have come into my life, some more prominently than others and yet others have drifted away. Every single interaction has helped me to see who I am, to discover the spar of hope I used to parade down the street with. People such as Dulcia, Madhavi, Ever and yes of course my lovely wife-to-be Sarah have all helped me discover the person I've always wanted to be but been afraid to confront. It's been rough, and at many points I have fought and rejected it.

All this is on my mind from a sudden and surprise test of my character I encountered within the last 24 hours. I've never realized how far I came until today, and how much I have changed. I know it's cliche', but there's a song lyric that really speaks to me on this:

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun,
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood.
Who can say if I've been changed for the better
But because I knew you.
I have been changed for good.

To all the wonderful people who have been in my life these last 4 years...thank you. Thank you for inspiring me, pushing me, mocking me at times when I got too serious or bringing me to earth when I was lost in the clouds. Thank you for never letting me go, and for helping me to be the good pperson I've always hoped to be.

Stay tuned for some madness, some ramblings and some more general updates. 

Plans within plans

Things I want to write about:

. Review Legendary and it's 2 expansions
. Discuss Pokemon (because I MUST catch them all)
. Marriage
. Tudor Feast 2015 and the madness it has become
. Wings of Revelation, the working title for a new game I'll be running
. SCA randomness

Thing's I'll be writing about today:

Nothing, because I don't have time before work.

In all seriousness, I do have a lot to talk about. I just wish I had more time to write during the day! I think I'll make a point of taking an hour or so after I get off work this eve to dedicate time to writing down what I think and feel or observe.

Happy Birthday to Me

So, tomorrow is my 27th birthday.

A friend asked me if I was where I thought I would be a decade ago. I thought about it and realized that I wasn't, but that was OK. They asked if I would be OK not having some big birthday celebrations, be given hundreds worth of presents or even have a party of some kind to celebrate my date of birth...but I'm also really OK with that too.

I have the best friends a man can ask for. I have some wonderful adversaries as well, because life shouldn't be boring. I have family, both blood and chosen, whom I know will always be there for me regardless of how much of an ass I am. I have a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in, and more forms of entertainment than I know how to shake a stick at. I got a job I love with bosses I adore, even when they drive me nutters. And I have a loving fiance' who is everything I could want or need in a partner, even if it took me a while to realize it.

So yeah, I'm no where I thought I would be a decade ago. But I'll be damned if I'm disappointed, life has just gotten better and I know the future will be even brighter.

Board Games and Personalities

I know, bad monkey for not posting every day. things have been hectic here, gonna be doing some double posts till I catch back up.

So, I like to game. I do table top gaming such as Dungeons and Dragons, I play video games like Mario or Skyrim and often times I play card and board games. Poker and Monopoly are played, this is true, but I find my taste in games to be a bit more geeky and eccentric. I love games like Cosmic Encounters, Gloom, Settlers of Catan, 7 Wonders and a whole host more. These are part of a wave of "geek" games, systems based on geeky/nerdy concepts or unique rule system that I find absolutely adorable and cool.

Over the last few years, I have played many games. Now that I have a decent paying job, I can actually afford many of these games myself, and get to enjoy them on a far more regular basis. I have found with my friend and I, our personalities and even our attitudes tend to shift and change depending on the game we're in. I find it amusing and also fascinating to watch a normally quiet and simple person go to a frothing rage monster once they get a set of Cosmic cards in their hands, or see the inner goth bloom with a good game of Gloom.

I'm gonna do a simple review of two of my favorite games here, and some amusing notions on how we tend to suddenly act and change while playing them.

Cosmic Encounters - This is the original geeky game for me, the one that drew me into the world of board gaming and fun. The premise of the game is that you are one of over a hundred alien species (or 2 aliens together, if you use the variant rules) trying to conquer the galaxy. You have your own home system of planets, and you must use your alien powers and various cards drawn from a deck to conquer your enemies home systems. The first person to 5 foreign victories wins.

This game is difficult, I admit, but so much fun to play. Picking an alien can be daunting, and it takes several games to really get a firm grasp and understanding of the rules. It took me 4 or 5, and there are STILL some aliens I have never played and thus don't truly understand the rules for. If you get a game of experienced players however, watch out for some awesome fun times. The game can get very aggressive and heated at times, make sure to take breaks after the game is over to avoid issues.

We tend to get very aggressive and violent during this game, for some reason the concept of galactic conquest just makes people violent. We tend to get loud, lots of arm flailing and cursing happens. Even those of us not normally aggressive will become very dominant and headstrong, and its almost comical the bloodthirstiness that will radiate from Sarah's eyes. We can't play this game too much though, we've given it the nickname "the game that ruins friendships" for a good reason.

Skytraders - This was actually a random purchase, recommended to Jake by a game store owner, and I have found it incredibly awesome and fun. Its a long game though, so be prepared to play this for the long haul. The premise of this game is that you are one of 5 airship captains in a steampunk world, and you are attempting to gain control of the Skytraders guild. You do this by buying and selling goods, earning gold, influencing the market value of said goods and buying guild influence. The first person to the center of the guild influence tracker wins!

This is a game that once you sort all the pieces is actually really simple. You have limited movement, you must buy goods and sell them in other cities, and later you must roll dice to see which market goods you control. The buying and selling is straight forward, and I find the market phase rather exciting. So, you take your 3 dice and roll them. The numbers they land on correspond with a specific good. You now have the ability to make the price go up (thus more expensive to buy or sell) or make the price go down (thus cheaper to buy and sell). You have two minute to negotiate with your fellow captain on who will back what, and its always intense and a lot of fun. So much fun, in fact, we regularly forget to buy guild influence while playing!

Now you'd think with an aggressive game like stock market control we'd be just as ruthless as Cosmic, but you would be surprisingly wrong. When we sit down to play I always insist of drinking tea (because were civilized captains) and we all take on an air of sophistication. We have to work together at times to push the goods up or down as we need, and that need to find common ground and agreements makes us much more careful about being ruthless to another. There is a combat mechanic for fighting each other, but we so rarely do it I often don't even bother getting the ship combat upgrades in favor of ship crew that helps me buy/sell better. We act like proper steampunk airship captains the entire time, which causes no end of eyerolling from Lana or Sarah.

Things you didn't know until you needed to...

I have found there is a HUGE list of things that have been neglect in my education, and things I am just starting to learn I needed to know like...now. These are things I find very frustrating, not a bad frustrating mind you but still frustrating nonetheless, but I will struggle though them.

First off, no one accurately prepares you for success. Like, honest to gods I have never been prepared or ready for the kind of success I have found with my job right now. They always say hard work, loyalty and dedication will pay off...but when was the last time it truly did? I haven't been taught what to do with rapid and frequent success, never prepared for it. I still don't know what to do with it, but I'm just rolling with the punches right now and taking it one day at a time.

Also, it gets talked about all the time but no one can really prepare you with moving in with your future spouse. So much needs to be covered and figured out, so much needs to be accounted for but it all needs to be done with zero education and training. We're sorting through all of that as a couple, but its a step-by-step process. For us its been a mixing of the geek cultures, combining our media and gaming habits has been odd.   We both have separate lives worth of things, so who's things get put where and displayed out next to what? Figuring out how to start the process of combining bank accounts, consolidating our various personal lives and how to sort out each others families...we're learning as we go but I sure coulda used a course on this in college!

Also...weddings. Like, holy shazbot there is no education on planning anything wedding related. There are a million "ultimate guides" out there, and I keep seeing a lot of dollar signs adding up. It is frustrating that a modern wedding costs so much, neither of us come from rich families and are looking at paying for it ourselves (which leaves only 6000 for everything). And so many options, so many variables to account for that you had no idea until you started the process. It feels like my wallet is being held hostage for the sake of love, and makes me fussy. There's still more to delve into it, and maybe this wedding planner will be a boon, but I hate feeling like I'm being fleeced and am supposed to grin and bare it. I wish I knew what right options to take, what right way to go about things so I felt like I wan't just about to be screwed.

Life is going great, please don't take this the wrong way. I just wish I felt more prepared for these experiences that I'm going through, more ready to handle them. I think I'm doing pretty well all things considered, and handling it all well. But the Boy Scout in me always wants to be prepared!

Moving, ugh

I am exhausted form moving, and will be posting more tomorrow.

The last 24 hours have been a lot of pain and struggle, but we made it in and got everything into the apartment. The big unpacking is next, which sounds easier than it is. The place is nice, and I plan on doing some before/after shots once the rooms are in reasonable enough shape and not filled with boxes. I have been building furniture all day, which means fewer boxes have been unpacked but more places to put the unpacked items as soon as I'm ready.

Christmas Wishlist of DOOOOM!

As is tradition, I like to provide a Christmas wishlist for all of those people who inquire or wish to do any gift-giving towards me this upcoming birth celebration time. Do I expect anyone to ever get me anything? Not really, but there are a number of people who do inquire as to what to get me so I try and make my options varied and wide.

Electronics:

. XBox 360
. PS3

. New Laptop battery
. Blackberry Cellphone Charger
. World of Warcraft game-time cards
. iPad 2
. iPod Touch
. External storage drive
. Flash drive

Clothing:

. Blue jeans (36 waist)
. Black socks!
. Linen fabric for making clothing with (white, blue, red, brown, green and black preferred), minimum 6 yards
. Elbow pads
. Catcher greeves
. Leather boots (preferably in a 14th century style)

Books:


. Apicius (Roman cook book)
. Wolfheart
. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (hardback)
. Take A Thousand Eggs or More
. Stormrage
. Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War

Media:

. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger tides (Blu-ray)
. Lord of the Rings Extended edition: Fellowship of the Ring (Blu-ray)
. Howl's Moving Castle (Blu-ray)
. Troll Hunter (Blu-ray)
. The Lion King (Blu-ray)
. Captain America; The First Avenger (Blu-ray)
. Thor (Blu-ray)
. Marble Hornets season 1 (DVD)
. Marble Hornets season 2 (DVD)

Miscelanious:

. Basic weight lifting set
. Saffron
. Grains of Paradise
. Cubeb
. Kiddie pool (big plastic inflatable one)
. Potting soil
. Onion, Green pepper, basil, rosemary or sage seeds
. Camping lantern
. Fire pit
. Razors
. Gift cards to Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, Books-a-Million, Michaels or Jo-Anne's
. Ticket to Ride (board game)
. Honey (by the gallon)
. 1 gallon carboys
. Surgical tubing
. corks (for bottling of booze)
. surgical clamps
. fermentation locks

Meditation, relaxation and centering

I'm a person who has a lot of security issues (like every human ever) and as many people have done over the centuries I've found ways to try and center myself and find my zen. The best way for me has always been to find "my place" and to relax and meditate, often I'll sit for an hour in a comfortable position and just reflect on my thoughts and feelings. My place is an area that's always been distinctly me, my smells or sights or just kinda saturated with me-ness in general, and that's always in the past helped me to become comfortable and relaxed.

Over the last year I've had a lot of lifestyle changes, mostly good, and these have changed not just the way I see the world and interact with it but also what helps me to relax and to keep me calm. I've always struggled with over-stimulation, too much of anything and I start to stress and become twitchy, but over the last two months I've come to discover that my old ways of relaxing and finding my zen seem to either be less effective or just make the problem worse. I've come to find that being isolated and alone, absorbed in my own comfort setting, doesn't really help me relieve stress as much or at all anymore these days.My own spiritual turbulence hasn't helped much, so I decided a plan of attack was needed.

So I began my search to try and find more of me and to reconnect with myself. I tried a variety of different meditations and changes to my environment, it took a while but I finally found something that worked. And I learned a little bit more about myself in the process. I found out that really...being alone doesn't work anymore. Maybe it's a result of me growing and breaking out of my tiny shell, or perhaps its because I'm tired of living in fear and distrust and want to open up more with people. In either case, I want to be connected and I want to feel like I'm a part of something. That really helped, coming to understand that. The bustle of city life just made me nervous, I hate traffic and being surrounded by way too much city always makes me frustrated at the urban sprawl. I've found just relaxing with my back against a tree, shoes kicked off and toes wriggling in the open air far more comfortable and useful for my meditations.

I've started almost all of my days over the last 2 weeks the same way, which I've found rather nice. I wake up, have a glass of water and head outside. Behind my dwelling is a nice plot of land, nice dense trees which I can walk just 5 feet back into before losing sight of the road and civilization. There's a pine tree with a nice nook that I rest against and stretch out. Sometimes I wriggle in to get more comfortable, sometimes I don't need to, but I always kick my shoes and socks off and wriggle my toes in the air satisfied to have the freedom. Sometimes I dig them into the dirt, sometimes I just let the rest on the leaves and see how many I can collect on top of them. I'll then fold my hands over my lap, close my eyes and just relax. I'll meditate on my thoughts, on my day and what my tasks are. I'll reflect on my surroundings, and lose myself in the buzzing of the bugs and the chirping of the birds.I lose myself, till I just can't feel anything except that I'm a part of the woods and its when I can finally feel relaxed and ready to tackle the day. I stay until I'm lost, no more than several minutes sometimes but other times under darker days I can be there for an hour or more. When I finally walk back out, I dunno I just feel more me and not me at the same time.

So yeah, that's been my new thing. It feels really good so far in helping me get ready for the day, and helping me feel more...I dunno, more me.

Cooking wishlist

One of the things that always frustrate me is my lack of knowledge, the things I wish I knew how to do but haven't had the time/money/teacher show me how. One of the perks of having a Laurel in the SCA is of course having that great relationship with a teacher, and having someone to help point me towards other teachers of great skills! I need lists however, and I spent some of my downtime on Saturday at Michaelmass writing down a list of skills and arts I would love to learn! This is in no way shape or form in order, nor is this everything I'd like to learn, this is just me writing down as I thought "Man, wouldn't that be cool?!"

• Eastern cooking (Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, etc)
• Soap-making
• Cheese-making
• Herbal skills (identification, growing, drying for spices and teas, etc)
• Calligraphy
• Mead and Beer brewing
• 14th century fishing
• Book binding
• Leatherworking
• 14th Century Medicines
• Herb Gardening

Like I said, not a complete list but a good start to begin my learnings in! I know several people I can poke for some of this, others I think I'll need to start asking around for.

I totally promise tomorrow to have a right-and-proper update with how Michaelmass went, but as you can see from all these various posts it was a lot!

Apprentice

Life has a strange way of working out sometimes, of just having things come together in such a way that you have to marvel at the beauty of it. This weekend was a joining of the strands, of seemingly random occurrences and happenstance meetings drawing people closer and into new and exciting adventures together.

I first met Mistress Madhavi last year at Res Vesteria, on what she calls one of her worst days ever. I was inspired by her command of the kitchen in the line of fire, awed by her culinary skill and encouraged when she was willing to listen to my suggestions and even implement them in the meal. I left that event uplifted, excited and jabbering all the way home to my friends at the amazingly cool person I had just met. I next ran into her at Fall Coronation 2011, at the end of the feast she went out of her way to come find me. I was humbled that she remembered me, she personally thanked me again for my work with her at Res Vesteria and said she would love to work with me again anytime. I found out she had been made a Laurel that day before I arrived to site, and I remarked to my friend Jake that if I were to ever take a belt I would want ti from her.

That first real communication, the thanks and the promise of future work inspired me. You can look back on my blog from last year and see the sheer number of cooking entries I did as I tested making my own period recipes. I was consumed with a passion for the culinary arts and every event and every art/sci I found a way to attend/enter just made me more inspired. I began to research my persona and my garb, study my culture and my food. I sat down and just wanted to absorb SCA culture and history, sometimes sitting by the fire for hours as I just listened to the stories of yesteryear. When Kingdom Art/Sci rolled back around and I found that Mistress Madhavi was one of my judges, I was a ball of nervousness and anticipation. Not only did it go well, but she invited me to cook and do even more with her at Gulf wars!

Gulf Wars was amazing in so many ways that I still can't even describe it all. I got to know Mistress Madhavi and so many other amazing people even better, I had a wonderful cooking experience and I worked up the nerve to ask to be Madhavi's student. We talked about it and she accepted me on, I tried not to have a gigglefit in front of her and saved that for private over booze with Ever. Having someone there as a teacher was a really great thing for me. Now I had someone whom I could regularly pester with questions in relation to food whenever they came up, someone to confide in with my concerns and someone I could rely on to be there for me whenever I needed it. I've had various friends who filled that roll for me, and still do, but this was something unique and special for me and it satisfied me in so many ways I feel stupid for rambling about.

At Fall Coronation this year, Madhavi (after insisting she have her full plate of cupcakes before talking to me) asked me to be her apprentice. She asked me to help her form a household, and asked me to start the journey to being a Laurel. I was so taken aback and stunned that for a minute I just sat there in silence staring at the kitchen, staring at the oven long enough that she asked me if I had changed my mind about wanting it. I quickly reassured her no, that it was something I deeply wanted and was just honored and floored to have been asked. We discussed a few things, then agreed to be quiet about it until she belted me at Michaelmas after feast.

The belting ceremony was everything I could have wanted. It was small and intimate, there were piles of food and booze around as Quan had been cooking all night for this. The moon was bright and full in the sky, no clouds, and the air was pleasantly warm. Not only were Quan and my Lady there, but we was also joined by Wolfmom and Countess Sibilla. Both of these lovely ladies ave been a real inspiration o my SCA time so far, and having my first Queen overseeing my belting made my vision water a little. Madhavi asked me for three promises to her, three she would hold me to then gave me three she would make to me and expect me to hold her to in return. The belt she tied me with was her own apprentice belt, in accordance with custom it seemed, and even though she said she could make me a less girly belt I wouldn't want to trade this one for anything. After that was done, she held up a raksha bandhan and asked for my right arm. She tied the jewelry to my wrist, explaining that this symbolized she would always look after me and defend me for to her I was her little brother and before she tied the knot on it she asked if I would do the same. Both of us got a little watery-visioned at this point and I nodded, she tied the knot and that was that.

Drinking and talking and partying then was in order. Stories ere told and I was honored as the Excellenices of An Crosaire and the Empress both arrived with the intention of congratulating me and Madhavi. I was so overwhelmed at this point I needed to go for a walk, I don't do well on emotional overload and I went into the woods and just sat and cried for a few moments. I hadn't felt so welcomed, so appreciated and so much at home in such a long time tat I didn't know how to handle it but with a few happy tears and laughter against an oak tree. I visited a few friends, then made my way back feeling light as a feather and ontop of the world.

There will be more writing about this event this week, but I needed to get this off my chest and onto this blog for my own memories. Than you for those taking this journey with me.

Adventures in film making: Lots Caste

For those of you unaware, I am a huge supporter of the Not 1 Zombie film project, being organized and directed by my friends Haley and Kyle. I've advertized for them, boosted the signal on their production blog ( which can be found here ) and I've even helped them by filming my own short video clip to build on the universe ( which can be found here ). Last weekend I took another big step forward, not just in helping them out but also pushing forward with the job goals I'm hoping to achieve. For the Lots Caste film, I got to do catering for the cast and crew.

For everyone involved, this was a big step-up in film production. For the N1Z crew, this was the first time having a whole crew to take care of every issue. Haley directed, Kyle was cam-ops, Bailey was the clapper, Gogas was audio and photography, Andrew was PA, Andrew Valentine was make-up, Les was script editor, Eric (on top of acting) will be editing the footage and I was catering. With four actors involved as well, this was the largest shoot to date for the N1Z team. Of course large shoots come with its own set of challenges and rewards.

The biggest challenge of the day was getting the timing done right. Two things needed to happen in order to make this shoot a success, we needed to get the outside shots done with mid morning light and we needed to shoot around one actresses time constraints. The outside shot was a simple enough fix, the timing had to be precise and the acting spot on for the hour and a half time they had available to them for the shoot. Eric was spot on great, and this challenge sailed with ease. The issue with the actress took a bit more work, but Haley and Kyle were able to pull it off spectacularly. They shot out of order, taking care of all her close-ups and lines of dialog while others were arriving/getting prepped, and even did the final scene first to ensure that film continuity could be maintained. It was a nearly 4 hour process that ate a lot of time, but hey sometimes that's film work!

I was in charge of catering, and managing the food for the shoot. I had a lot of fun with it, because as you may have guessed I enjoy cooking, but also for the unique challenge it put for me. I had to organize 2 meals for a decent sized cast, the food had to meet the dietary restrictions/appetites of the cast and crew, had to be affordable enough to fit on the budget AND had to be simple enough to eat that people could grab and go while the shoot went on. Lunch in itself was pretty simple I feel, sandwiches people could assemble as they wished to eat when they wished. In the photo above you can see the spread I laid out: on the left were ham sandwiches, on the right turkey sandwiches and on the tiny plate far right I did PB&J (for the vegetarians). Cheddar and provolone cheese was also provided, and condiments available were mayo and mustard. The snack garden behind provided light and sweet dessert items, and for my vegan on shoot a salad was prepared with a ginger dressing.

Dinner was a bit more complex, but still yummy! I prepared Pullum paroptum, a roasted chicken recipe from Apicus that I will also be cooking for the Michaelmas Moot fundraiser lunch (oh yeah, using catering to test prep a period chicken dish), ashed potatoes with rosemary and salad. The chicken came out great, a little cooking issues with the number but it worked out fine. I really loved the spice blend on this chicken, and the parsley had such a wonderful smell and taste on the flesh. I shredded it and made it into a sandwich for myself, a little smear of honey mustard really made the day with this and I'm excited to serve it next weekend.

This was a really great shoot, and I recommend heading over to the N1Z blog linked above for more information. I learned a lot about kitchen organization and timing when it came to feeding people (especially when I cannot control the schedule) and am appy and eager to elp them again on any future projects.

Baronial Encampment FAQ

Boosting the signal here, before working on other Blog project. This is the info I'm pushing out into the internet for the Darkwater Baronial Encampment gates.

* * *

Good day Milords and Miladies!

This is Christoff Koch, signing back in after Fall Coronation with updated and exciting information for the Darkwater Baronial Encampment! Thank you very much to their Excellenies, their Next-ellencies and our very own Baronial Quartermaster for all the advise and assistance in getting us this far.

Q: We've heard about this Baronial Encampment, when are you planning on hosting the first one?

A: The Baronial Encampment is scheduled to be set up for all Kingdom-level events at Camp Ocala, starting with Mayanmas Moot in November. We are planning on providing this space four times a year (the two Coronations and the two Crown Lysts) and may look into providing it more frequently at other events if their Excellenies feel the venue is appropriate.

Q: Great! So...where are you gonna host this thing?!

A: After an exhaustive search of the camp, their Excellencies and I have decided upon the location between cabins 16 and 17. There will be a map provided to show off the area and proposed campsite, this map will be in the Peregrine Crest canton newsletter for September then later submitted for the October revelry. At Village Faire, providing the Autocrat has no objections, I will have a small table in the feast hall with a display of the Encampment info and maps available as well.

Q: Sounds great, but an Encampment needs a lot of things to make it a great place to be. How do you intend to get things like walls and decorations?

A: I have been in talks with the Seneschals of our Cantons, as well as our own Baronial Quartermaster. I am very pleased to report that I have been given nothing but positive feedback on my proposals and have the pledged support of the Cantons and the Quartermaster to help supply the camp. Each Canton has spoken to me on what they have in storage to supply, and the Art/Sci officer of Swampkeype has volunteered to help organize banner crafting.

I'll be talking with our Baronial Art/Sci officer in hopes of scheduling time to work on other craft projects for the Encampment, and the Seneschal of Loch Gryffin has graciously designed and helped me start a project for a gateway into the Encampment itself.

Q: Wait, did you say gate? Like, as in a fancy gate??

A: Yes I did! I am very proud to announce that should we raise the funds for it, Darkwater will not only have an awesome gate for our encampment but will have fabric walls to "guard" our boarders. Its a very exciting project, and everyone who has helped me with it so far has an energy and zeal for its creation.

Q: We know that Darkwater sadly can't afford at this time to supply this gate, and this would be such an awesome thing to have! How can we help?!

A: I'm so glad you asked!

After speaking with the Kingdom Seneschal about fundraising options and getting his stamp of approval, over the coming months I will be rolling out a few fundraising opportunities for the members of this Barony to participate in. This Encampment will be our home, a place anyone can go to and have rest and fun, and a home that everyone helps build is all that more special. I have several projects to work out for the Encampment, but just one a trip as to not tax any of our populous so all fundraising will occur just for the next project.

As I stated, our first project is for the Darkwater Gate and our Encampment walls. I will be collecting money starting today (9/4/2012) till 10/10/2012. I will have a small lockbox I will carry with me to every single event, meeting or social SCA function I attend and am hoping to convince one or two of my dear friends to help me collect funds as well ;). I hope to announce the completed gate as well as funds raised at Village Faire.

Q: I would love to help out by donating cash, but some of my friends may need convincing. Any incentives or perks to helping?

A: Man, its like you can read my mind and know what questions to ask!

I feel that any assistance should be rewarded, that donations should receive something for the act of courtesy and support. Having received approval from both their Excellencies and the Kingdom Seneschal, I have the following incentive plan for donations of cash:

1 Dollar - Thank you card

5 Dollars - Thank you card, your name painted on the back of the gate as a supporter and funder of the encampment

10 dollars - Thank you card, your name painted on the back of the gate as a supporter and funder of the encampment, your personal heraldry blazoned onto the gate

20 Dollars -  Thank you card, your name painted on the back of the gate as a supporter and funder of the encampment, your personal heraldry blazoned onto the gate, 1 dozen cookies of your choice delivered at village fair

30 dollars - Thank you card, your name painted on the back of the gate as a supporter and funder of the encampment, your personal heraldry blazoned onto the gate, 1 dozen cookies of your choice delivered at village fair, 6 Cardamom cherry cupcakes delivered at Village Faire (if you would like a reference on the quality of the cupcakes, feel free to ask our new Empress ;) )

Thank you very much for all your support, enthusiasm and generosity that you've already shown me. If you have any questions/comments/concerns please do not hesitate to ask.

YIS,

 - Christoff Koch
~With great cupcakes, comes great responsibility.~